Turkmenistan's gilded dog monument & the Putin connection

Was Ronald Reagan a kindhearted conservative who remade government and merits his standing as a beloved icon of the Republican Party? Or was he a glorified actor who won election with a coded racist appeal to white voters, setting the stage for the rise of President Donald Trump?

That debate has long absorbed Reagan historians and biographers, particularly these days as Reagan’s legacy seems ever more gauzy when held up against these past four years of the just-defeated president.

And it is now being tackled in “The Reagans,” a four-part documentary on Ronald and Nancy Reagan premiering Sunday on Showtime. It is the work of Matt Tyrnauer, a documentarian whose subjects have included Roy Cohn, fashion designer Valentino and Studio 54.

Tyrnauer grew up in Los Angeles when Reagan was governor of California. As a boy being driven to school by his father, he sat in traffic as the motorcade taking the newly elected president from his home in the Pacific Palisades to a postelection news conference in Century City sped down Sunset Boulevard.

From the second instalment of “The Reagans,” it is clear where Tyrnauer, who began his career as a junior aide in Democratic politics before moving into magazine writing and directing documentaries, comes down on Reagan’s place in the nation’s fraught history of race and politics. The episode opens with 40-year-old footage of Reagan in Mississippi, affirming his support for “states’ rights” at a county fair filled with white voters.

“The reason I wanted to make this was to show how Reagan in many ways paved the way for Trump — and the Republican Party that has now fallen into Trump’s hands,” he said in a video interview from his Beverly Hills home a week before the president’s defeat was called. “I really thought it was very important to show that the Republican Party, certainly after the 1950s and since the era of this country’s civil rights movement and reckoning, has been on the wrong side of history. And Reagan was right at the center of that.”

Over the course of nearly four hours, the documentary explores Reagan’s boyhood in Illinois and recounts his Hollywood years and the skills he learned as an actor — the bright smile, his affable if slightly inscrutable affect -&nbsp;that made him such a powerful candidate for president. Recalling Reagan’s first screen test, studio head Jack Warner said, in a 1960s interview clip included in the documentary, that the actor’s “personality projected off the screen and into the audience.”

The series offers a portrait of Nancy Reagan as a powerful and manipulative behind-the-scenes player who was essential to her husband’s success. It follows Ronald Reagan’s evolution from a liberal, the son of two Democrats and the former head of the Screen Actors Guild, to a staunch anti-communist conservative.

And it is striking, after this polarizing election and four years of the Trump presidency, to hear Reagan’s tough talk about law and order, to note his 1980 campaign slogan -&nbsp;“Make America Great Again” -&nbsp;and to watch the parallels between a movie star and a reality television star, both of whom knew how to command the attention of the American public and the media.

But more than anything, this documentary is animated by the notion of Reagan as an early practitioner of dog-whistle politics, a member of the generation of politicians who used coded appeals directed at an attuned audience of white voters.

“I believe in states’ rights,” he said in the summer of 1980 at the Neshoba County Fair near Philadelphia, Mississippi, 7 miles from where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964. It is a dramatic moment in which he seemingly affirms the power of Southern states to defy a federal government trying to end discrimination: The camera follows as he steps off his campaign plane to be greeted by a grinning Trent Lott, then a senator from Mississippi, and shadows his motorcade winding through crowds of white voters.

To be clear, the idea of Reagan as a politician who swam in the waters of American racism, preparing the way for a Trump presidency, is not a consensus position.

“To me, Reagan is the anti-Trump,” Lou Cannon, a former Washington Post reporter and Reagan biographer who appears in the documentary, said last week. “If you look at Reagan’s presidency, you did not see a career of racial incitement. It’s not a fair rap.

“Reagan is the antithesis of Trump in so many ways,” he added. “He was uniformly courteous and nice and decent to people. Trump, by the way he acts, has made us see that human decency in a political leader is important. Second, he was a compromiser. He always said that he was willing to take half a loaf. He got legislation through because of that.”

Historian Rick Perlstein cautioned against reading too much into the Mississippi speech, arguing that it oversimplified Reagan’s complicated relationship with race.

“Liberals, and I am a proud liberal, are always looking for smoking guns to prove that conservatives are racist,” Perlstein said an interview.

In his new book, “Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980,” Perlstein says the former president’s invocation of states’ rights was halfhearted, buried midway into his speech, and inserted at Lott’s suggestion. (And to what end? Reagan barely squeaked by Jimmy Carter in Mississippi.)

Tyrnauer is not a presence in any of his documentaries, and he is heard only twice in “The Reagans,” asking questions off camera. He builds his case with interviews — Ron Reagan Jr., surviving members of Reagan’s White House, journalists from the era and historians — along with contemporaneous news clips and rare archival film footage.

“What I look for is the obscure stuff, or the angles you never saw,” he said. The documentary opens with behind-the-scenes footage in which Reagan’s advertising team is filming the president speaking in the Oval Office for a 1984 campaign commercial. At the side of the shot, aides look at a stopwatch, impressed that this former actor clocked in for the 60-second advertisement at 57 seconds.

Tyrnauer tracked down a lost documentary about Nancy Reagan from when Reagan was governor, with intimate shots of the new governor and his family moving into their new home in Sacramento, and scenes of Nancy Reagan back in Los Angeles shopping for dog food at the Brentwood Country Mart (and admitting, with obvious chagrin, that she did not have money to pay for it).

Most of all, in making his case against the former president, Tyrnauer draws on footage of Reagan in his early days as a politician, as he likened streets in crime-stricken urban areas to “jungle paths” and talked about “welfare queens” in disparaging what he described as a liberal state.

“What was really astonishing to me was seeing how much film there was of Reagan in the act of dog whistling,” Tyrnauer said. “And some of his dog whistles at the time would be considered foghorns today.”

I met Tyrnauer while covering the 1988 presidential campaign; he was an assistant at the Boston headquarters of Michael Dukakis, the Democrat who would lose to George H.W. Bush. Tyrnauer left politics to become a writer at Vanity Fair before turning to directing documentaries. His first, "Valentino: The Last Emperor,” released in 2009, was based on a profile he wrote in Vanity Fair. His Cohn documentary, “Where’s My Roy Cohn?,” explored the relationship between Cohn and one of his most famous law clients, Donald Trump.

Needless to say, it’s an eclectic portfolio.

The Reagan documentary would have been challenging at any time — the Reagans are well-plowed ground. It may have been 32 years since the end of his presidency, but he is remembered by millions of Americans, defined for many of them by the upbeat advertisement that opened with the words “It’s morning again in America,” which helped lift him to a landslide reelection over Walter Mondale in 1984. Nancy Reagan was, apart from Hillary Clinton, arguably the most powerful and polarizing first lady of the past 75 years.

But this project was complicated by the onset of the pandemic. Tyrnauer and his staff were forced to work from their homes. Archives, and in particular the files and videos collected by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, abruptly shut down.

Interviews became far more complicated. Most of the subjects are, not surprisingly, older and thus wary of letting a film crew into their homes. Tyrnauer finished his interview with Lesley Stahl, the Reagan White House reporter for CBS, a week before she was hospitalized with COVID-19. Tyrnauer, changing gears, conducted half of the project’s 30 interviews by video from his home, sending in local film crews.

Many top figures in Reagan’s world sat down for interviews, including James Baker III, Reagan’s chief of staff; George Shultz, secretary of state; and Colin Powell, national security adviser. The Reagans’ son, Ron, is a prominent voice throughout the series, chatty and candid. But their daughter, Patti Davis, is notably absent. (Tyrnauer said she was working on another project.)

Stahl, in her interview, describes the allure this first family had over the media as she recalls the first time he stepped into the White House briefing room to talk to the press.

“We all kind of melted,” she says. “We were puddles on the floor.”

Most jarring, for anyone looking for parallels between the Trump and Reagan years, is the appearance by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The coronavirus crisis is not his first experience with either a pandemic or a president who failed to deal with one: Reagan largely ignored the deadly AIDS epidemic during its early years, and the documentary presents this as one of his most consequential failures as president.

“I was very frustrated with seeing an emerging catastrophe, and he wanted nothing to do with it,” Fauci says.

As a rule, Americans’ views of presidents soften with time — Trump may prove to be the exception — and that certainly happened with Reagan. But this documentary invites a reappraisal. It is a harsh portrait of Reagan as a politician and as a president, and it seems likely to reignite old arguments. Tyrnauer argues that Reagan has been protected by historians, Republicans and journalists because of his political success and likability.

“You can listen to podcast after podcast today of respectable historians talking about all of the dog-whistle sins of the past,” Tyrnauer said. “George Wallace comes up, and Richard Nixon comes up with the Southern strategy. And Willie Horton comes up and George H.W. Bush comes up. Reagan is shockingly absent from all those narratives and discussions.

“He was an extraordinarily intuitive politician and ultimately among the most successful of his generation,” Tyrnauer said. “But how is he not held accountable?”

Was Ronald Reagan a kindhearted conservative who remade government and merits his standing as a beloved icon of the Republican Party? Or was he a glorified actor who won election with a coded racist appeal to white voters, setting the stage for the rise of President Donald Trump?

Was Ronald Reagan a kindhearted conservative who remade government and merits his standing as a beloved icon of the Republican Party? Or was he a glorified actor who won election with a coded racist appeal to white voters, setting the stage for the rise of President Donald Trump? That debate has long absorbed Reagan historians and biographers, particularly these days as Reagan’s legacy seems ever more gauzy when held up against these past four years of the just-defeated president. And it is now being tackled in “The Reagans,” a four-part documentary on Ronald and Nancy Reagan premiering Sunday on Showtime. It is the work of Matt Tyrnauer, a documentarian whose subjects have included Roy Cohn, fashion designer Valentino and Studio 54. Tyrnauer grew up in Los Angeles when Reagan was governor of California. As a boy being driven to school by his father, he sat in traffic as the motorcade taking the newly elected president from his home in the Pacific Palisades to a postelection news conference in Century City sped down Sunset Boulevard. From the second instalment of “The Reagans,” it is clear where Tyrnauer, who began his career as a junior aide in Democratic politics before moving into magazine writing and directing documentaries, comes down on Reagan’s place in the nation’s fraught history of race and politics. The episode opens with 40-year-old footage of Reagan in Mississippi, affirming his support for “states’ rights” at a county fair filled with white voters. “The reason I wanted to make this was to show how Reagan in many ways paved the way for Trump — and the Republican Party that has now fallen into Trump’s hands,” he said in a video interview from his Beverly Hills home a week before the president’s defeat was called. “I really thought it was very important to show that the Republican Party, certainly after the 1950s and since the era of this country’s civil rights movement and reckoning, has been on the wrong side of history. And Reagan was right at the center of that.” Over the course of nearly four hours, the documentary explores Reagan’s boyhood in Illinois and recounts his Hollywood years and the skills he learned as an actor — the bright smile, his affable if slightly inscrutable affect - that made him such a powerful candidate for president. Recalling Reagan’s first screen test, studio head Jack Warner said, in a 1960s interview clip included in the documentary, that the actor’s “personality projected off the screen and into the audience.” The series offers a portrait of Nancy Reagan as a powerful and manipulative behind-the-scenes player who was essential to her husband’s success. It follows Ronald Reagan’s evolution from a liberal, the son of two Democrats and the former head of the Screen Actors Guild, to a staunch anti-communist conservative. And it is striking, after this polarizing election and four years of the Trump presidency, to hear Reagan’s tough talk about law and order, to note his 1980 campaign slogan - “Make America Great Again” - and to watch the parallels between a movie star and a reality television star, both of whom knew how to command the attention of the American public and the media. But more than anything, this documentary is animated by the notion of Reagan as an early practitioner of dog-whistle politics, a member of the generation of politicians who used coded appeals directed at an attuned audience of white voters. “I believe in states’ rights,” he said in the summer of 1980 at the Neshoba County Fair near Philadelphia, Mississippi, 7 miles from where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964. It is a dramatic moment in which he seemingly affirms the power of Southern states to defy a federal government trying to end discrimination: The camera follows as he steps off his campaign plane to be greeted by a grinning Trent Lott, then a senator from Mississippi, and shadows his motorcade winding through crowds of white voters. To be clear, the idea of Reagan as a politician who swam in the waters of American racism, preparing the way for a Trump presidency, is not a consensus position. “To me, Reagan is the anti-Trump,” Lou Cannon, a former Washington Post reporter and Reagan biographer who appears in the documentary, said last week. “If you look at Reagan’s presidency, you did not see a career of racial incitement. It’s not a fair rap. “Reagan is the antithesis of Trump in so many ways,” he added. “He was uniformly courteous and nice and decent to people. Trump, by the way he acts, has made us see that human decency in a political leader is important. Second, he was a compromiser. He always said that he was willing to take half a loaf. He got legislation through because of that.” Historian Rick Perlstein cautioned against reading too much into the Mississippi speech, arguing that it oversimplified Reagan’s complicated relationship with race. “Liberals, and I am a proud liberal, are always looking for smoking guns to prove that conservatives are racist,” Perlstein said an interview. In his new book, “Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980,” Perlstein says the former president’s invocation of states’ rights was halfhearted, buried midway into his speech, and inserted at Lott’s suggestion. (And to what end? Reagan barely squeaked by Jimmy Carter in Mississippi.) Tyrnauer is not a presence in any of his documentaries, and he is heard only twice in “The Reagans,” asking questions off camera. He builds his case with interviews — Ron Reagan Jr., surviving members of Reagan’s White House, journalists from the era and historians — along with contemporaneous news clips and rare archival film footage. “What I look for is the obscure stuff, or the angles you never saw,” he said. The documentary opens with behind-the-scenes footage in which Reagan’s advertising team is filming the president speaking in the Oval Office for a 1984 campaign commercial. At the side of the shot, aides look at a stopwatch, impressed that this former actor clocked in for the 60-second advertisement at 57 seconds. Tyrnauer tracked down a lost documentary about Nancy Reagan from when Reagan was governor, with intimate shots of the new governor and his family moving into their new home in Sacramento, and scenes of Nancy Reagan back in Los Angeles shopping for dog food at the Brentwood Country Mart (and admitting, with obvious chagrin, that she did not have money to pay for it). Most of all, in making his case against the former president, Tyrnauer draws on footage of Reagan in his early days as a politician, as he likened streets in crime-stricken urban areas to “jungle paths” and talked about “welfare queens” in disparaging what he described as a liberal state. “What was really astonishing to me was seeing how much film there was of Reagan in the act of dog whistling,” Tyrnauer said. “And some of his dog whistles at the time would be considered foghorns today.” I met Tyrnauer while covering the 1988 presidential campaign; he was an assistant at the Boston headquarters of Michael Dukakis, the Democrat who would lose to George H.W. Bush. Tyrnauer left politics to become a writer at Vanity Fair before turning to directing documentaries. His first, "Valentino: The Last Emperor,” released in 2009, was based on a profile he wrote in Vanity Fair. His Cohn documentary, “Where’s My Roy Cohn?,” explored the relationship between Cohn and one of his most famous law clients, Donald Trump. Needless to say, it’s an eclectic portfolio. The Reagan documentary would have been challenging at any time — the Reagans are well-plowed ground. It may have been 32 years since the end of his presidency, but he is remembered by millions of Americans, defined for many of them by the upbeat advertisement that opened with the words “It’s morning again in America,” which helped lift him to a landslide reelection over Walter Mondale in 1984. Nancy Reagan was, apart from Hillary Clinton, arguably the most powerful and polarizing first lady of the past 75 years. But this project was complicated by the onset of the pandemic. Tyrnauer and his staff were forced to work from their homes. Archives, and in particular the files and videos collected by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, abruptly shut down. Interviews became far more complicated. Most of the subjects are, not surprisingly, older and thus wary of letting a film crew into their homes. Tyrnauer finished his interview with Lesley Stahl, the Reagan White House reporter for CBS, a week before she was hospitalized with COVID-19. Tyrnauer, changing gears, conducted half of the project’s 30 interviews by video from his home, sending in local film crews. Many top figures in Reagan’s world sat down for interviews, including James Baker III, Reagan’s chief of staff; George Shultz, secretary of state; and Colin Powell, national security adviser. The Reagans’ son, Ron, is a prominent voice throughout the series, chatty and candid. But their daughter, Patti Davis, is notably absent. (Tyrnauer said she was working on another project.) Stahl, in her interview, describes the allure this first family had over the media as she recalls the first time he stepped into the White House briefing room to talk to the press. “We all kind of melted,” she says. “We were puddles on the floor.” Most jarring, for anyone looking for parallels between the Trump and Reagan years, is the appearance by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The coronavirus crisis is not his first experience with either a pandemic or a president who failed to deal with one: Reagan largely ignored the deadly AIDS epidemic during its early years, and the documentary presents this as one of his most consequential failures as president. “I was very frustrated with seeing an emerging catastrophe, and he wanted nothing to do with it,” Fauci says. As a rule, Americans’ views of presidents soften with time — Trump may prove to be the exception — and that certainly happened with Reagan. But this documentary invites a reappraisal. It is a harsh portrait of Reagan as a politician and as a president, and it seems likely to reignite old arguments. Tyrnauer argues that Reagan has been protected by historians, Republicans and journalists because of his political success and likability. “You can listen to podcast after podcast today of respectable historians talking about all of the dog-whistle sins of the past,” Tyrnauer said. “George Wallace comes up, and Richard Nixon comes up with the Southern strategy. And Willie Horton comes up and George H.W. Bush comes up. Reagan is shockingly absent from all those narratives and discussions. “He was an extraordinarily intuitive politician and ultimately among the most successful of his generation,” Tyrnauer said. “But how is he not held accountable?”

Was Reagan a precursor to Trump? A new documentary says yes

Myth busters about coronavirus pandemic

Dutch police on Thursday said they had arrested a suspect after the embassy of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/blast-in-jeddah-cemetery-in-saudi-arabia-with-several-european-diplomats-present-342401">Saudi Arabia</a> in the Netherlands was sprayed with gunfire before dawn earlier in the day. No one was injured.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/islamic-state-group-claims-responsibility-for-saudi-cemetery-attack-342740">Also Read:&nbsp;Islamic State group claims responsibility for Saudi cemetery attack</a>

Dutch police said multiple shots were fired at the embassy building in The Hague just before 6 a.m. (0500GMT), leaving bullet holes in various windows.

Police said the suspect was a 40-year-old man from the neighbouring town of Zoetermeer, but provided no details of his exact role or possible motive.

The arrested man will be questioned while police said they were still looking for any witnesses to the attack.

In a statement, the embassy condemned the "cowardly attack" and urged Saudi citizens in the Netherlands to be on high alert and to exercise caution.

The incident occurred a day after an explosion at a World War One remembrance ceremony involving foreign embassies in the Saudi city of Jeddah, which wounded several people.

The blast was the second security incident to take place in the Red Sea port city in the last couple of weeks, and the first apparent bomb attack targeting foreigners in the conservative kingdom.

Dutch police on Thursday said they had arrested a suspect after the embassy of Saudi Arabia in the Netherlands was sprayed with gunfire before dawn earlier in the day.

Dutch police on Thursday said they had arrested a suspect after the embassy of Saudi Arabia in the Netherlands was sprayed with gunfire before dawn earlier in the day. No one was injured. Also Read: Islamic State group claims responsibility for Saudi cemetery attack Dutch police said multiple shots were fired at the embassy building in The Hague just before 6 a.m. (0500GMT), leaving bullet holes in various windows. Police said the suspect was a 40-year-old man from the neighbouring town of Zoetermeer, but provided no details of his exact role or possible motive. The arrested man will be questioned while police said they were still looking for any witnesses to the attack. In a statement, the embassy condemned the "cowardly attack" and urged Saudi citizens in the Netherlands to be on high alert and to exercise caution. The incident occurred a day after an explosion at a World War One remembrance ceremony involving foreign embassies in the Saudi city of Jeddah, which wounded several people. The blast was the second security incident to take place in the Red Sea port city in the last couple of weeks, and the first apparent bomb attack targeting foreigners in the conservative kingdom.

Saudi embassy in Netherlands sprayed with gunfire, police arrest suspect

Archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick molested a 16-year-old in 1971 and it was covered up.

Instead of being punished, the cardinal was promoted. Pope John Paul-II&nbsp;who was the previous Pope gave him a promotion even when there were persistent complaints against McCarrick.

Pope Francis faces the same charge but, in 2018, he ordered an investigation against McCarrick which was a welcome step but much delayed.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-church-sex-abuse-a-decades-long-priest-sex-abuse-crisis-explained-342503/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The probe came more than 45 years after the first case of abuse and more than two decades after the first complaint.

"The McCarrick report is remarkable because it points to failings by a succession of Popes, particularly John Paul-II and Benedict XVI, who allowed Mccarrick, along with Vatican officials to rise through the ranks of the church in the United States, despite the fact that there were consistent rumours that he had practised sexual misconduct with adult seminarians," Philip Pullella, Reuters Vatican correspondent, said.

The Vatican's dirty linen is being washed in public now. Archbishop Luigi Ventura, former ambassador of the Pope to France has been accused by four men of sexual assault. A trial kicked off in Paris without the accused with the archbishop not present.

A sexual assault trial for the Vatican's former ambassador to France went ahead without him Tuesday after he produced a doctor’s note saying it was too dangerous for him to travel from Rome to Paris in the midst of France’s resurgent coronavirus epidemic.

Apparently, it's too dangerous for him to travel from Rome to Paris due to the Wuhan virus. The Archbishop's lawyers produced a doctor's note in his defence. The trial has started without him.

Pope Francis spoke out for the first time today but comments were limited to the McCarrick case. Once again he pledged to rid the Catholic church of sexual abuse.

"Yesterday the report on the painful case of ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick was published. I renew my closeness to the victims of all abuse and I renew the efforts of the church to eradicate this evil," Pope Francis said.

The Pope's response is far from adequate. Last year, in America alone, it was found that almost 1,700 priests and clergy accused of sex abuse were unsupervised, add the cases from around the world and the number of accused is staggering and the revelations shocking.

These are not men of God, these are predators. They should be tried in public by a court of law and not behind a veil of secrecy in the Vatican.

Archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick molested a 16-year-old in 1971 and it was covered up. Instead of being punished, the cardinal was promoted. Pope John Paul-II who was the previous Pope gave him a promotion even when there were persistent complaints against McCarrick.

Archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick molested a 16-year-old in 1971 and it was covered up. Instead of being punished, the cardinal was promoted. Pope John Paul-II who was the previous Pope gave him a promotion even when there were persistent complaints against McCarrick. Pope Francis faces the same charge but, in 2018, he ordered an investigation against McCarrick which was a welcome step but much delayed. The probe came more than 45 years after the first case of abuse and more than two decades after the first complaint. "The McCarrick report is remarkable because it points to failings by a succession of Popes, particularly John Paul-II and Benedict XVI, who allowed Mccarrick, along with Vatican officials to rise through the ranks of the church in the United States, despite the fact that there were consistent rumours that he had practised sexual misconduct with adult seminarians," Philip Pullella, Reuters Vatican correspondent, said. The Vatican's dirty linen is being washed in public now. Archbishop Luigi Ventura, former ambassador of the Pope to France has been accused by four men of sexual assault. A trial kicked off in Paris without the accused with the archbishop not present. A sexual assault trial for the Vatican's former ambassador to France went ahead without him Tuesday after he produced a doctor’s note saying it was too dangerous for him to travel from Rome to Paris in the midst of France’s resurgent coronavirus epidemic. Apparently, it's too dangerous for him to travel from Rome to Paris due to the Wuhan virus. The Archbishop's lawyers produced a doctor's note in his defence. The trial has started without him. Pope Francis spoke out for the first time today but comments were limited to the McCarrick case. Once again he pledged to rid the Catholic church of sexual abuse. "Yesterday the report on the painful case of ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick was published. I renew my closeness to the victims of all abuse and I renew the efforts of the church to eradicate this evil," Pope Francis said. The Pope's response is far from adequate. Last year, in America alone, it was found that almost 1,700 priests and clergy accused of sex abuse were unsupervised, add the cases from around the world and the number of accused is staggering and the revelations shocking. These are not men of God, these are predators. They should be tried in public by a court of law and not behind a veil of secrecy in the Vatican.

How Vatican covered up Archbishop Theodore McCarrick teen sexual assault case

Islamic State(IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack on <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/watch-saudi-man-crashes-car-into-meccas-grand-mosque-339196">Saudi </a>cemetery on Wednesday where European diplomats had gathered for World War I commemoration.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/blast-in-jeddah-cemetery-in-saudi-arabia-with-several-european-diplomats-present-342401">Also Read:&nbsp;Blast in Jeddah cemetery in Saudi Arabia with several European diplomats present</a>

In a statement on Telegram channel, the terrorist organization said: "IS fighters planted an explosive device in... the cemetery in the city of Jeddah yesterday (Wednesday)."

The group said the attack was carried out&nbsp;"in support" of the Prophet Mohammed.

After the blast, France cautioned its citizens to be on &nbsp;"maximum vigilance" as Greece, UK and the US assured Saudi authorities they would support an investigation into the attack.

The incident comes just a month after a guard at the French consulate in Jeddah was wounded by a knife-wielding Saudi amid anger over satirical cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/saudi-arabian-man-crashes-car-into-gates-of-meccas-grand-mosque-339306/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Diplomats of various European countries had gathered for the Armistice Day commemoration ceremony in the Red Sea port city and as the French consul was delivering a speech during the ceremony when the&nbsp;blast took place triggering panic.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/terrorist-cell-trained-by-irans-revolutionary-guards-busted-by-saudi-arabia-331051">Also Read:&nbsp;Terrorist cell trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards busted by Saudi Arabia</a>

The French foreign ministry said: "The annual ceremony commemorating the end of World War I at the non-Muslim cemetery in Jeddah, attended by several consulates, including that of France, was the target of an IED (improvised explosive device) attack this morning, which injured several people."

The various embassies issued a statement calling it a "cowardly attack" with several people injured in the attack.

Saudi authorities have launched an investigation into the attack. 
&nbsp;

Islamic State(IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Saudi cemetery on Wednesday where European diplomats had gathered for World War I commemoration.

Islamic State(IS) terror group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Saudi cemetery on Wednesday where European diplomats had gathered for World War I commemoration. Also Read: Blast in Jeddah cemetery in Saudi Arabia with several European diplomats present In a statement on Telegram channel, the terrorist organization said: "IS fighters planted an explosive device in... the cemetery in the city of Jeddah yesterday (Wednesday)." The group said the attack was carried out "in support" of the Prophet Mohammed. After the blast, France cautioned its citizens to be on "maximum vigilance" as Greece, UK and the US assured Saudi authorities they would support an investigation into the attack. The incident comes just a month after a guard at the French consulate in Jeddah was wounded by a knife-wielding Saudi amid anger over satirical cartoons of Prophet Mohammed. Watch: Diplomats of various European countries had gathered for the Armistice Day commemoration ceremony in the Red Sea port city and as the French consul was delivering a speech during the ceremony when the blast took place triggering panic. Also Read: Terrorist cell trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards busted by Saudi Arabia The French foreign ministry said: "The annual ceremony commemorating the end of World War I at the non-Muslim cemetery in Jeddah, attended by several consulates, including that of France, was the target of an IED (improvised explosive device) attack this morning, which injured several people." The various embassies issued a statement calling it a "cowardly attack" with several people injured in the attack. Saudi authorities have launched an investigation into the attack.

Islamic State group claims responsibility for Saudi cemetery attack

Typhoon Vamco devastates storm-battered Philippines

India-China standoff: How Indian Air Force's Apache, Chinook will take on China's attack helicopters along LAC

China is failing in Pakistan. Most investors think twice before funding projects in Pakistan.

Corruption, terrorism, violence and security concerns make Pakistan a deadly destination but China has kept pumping money to lay its debt trap.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-the-china-pakistan-economic-corridor-is-going-nowhere-342508/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

In January, the ground was broken for the first SEZ titled Allama Iqbal Industrial City in Faisalabad in Punjab province. However, the SEZ plan faces delays due in part to the fact that participating Chinese companies are expecting difficulties in managing human and material resources amid pandemic restrictions resulting in production delays and higher costs.

Now, the strategy may be backfiring. China's projects in Pakistan have been stalled due to rampant corruption and violent attacks. PM Imran Khan is now facing heat from the opposition because his own officials are in the dock.

PM Imran Khan wants to be known as a crusader against corruption whether it was the Sharifs or the Bhutto Zardaris, Khan has been relentless in his crackdown but the selected prime minister has been selective in his clampdown.

Imran Khan hasn't gone after the corrupt officials in his own team with the same enthusiasm. It began with lieutenant general Asim Saleem Bajwa - the pizza general who still remains the chairman of CPEC.

Fresh reports now indicate more dirty hands could be in the mix. Two advisers of Imran Khan are allegedly beneficiaries of government subsidies. The securities and exchange commission of Pakistan conducted an enquiry. It found irregularities worth over $1.8 billion in government subsidies. They were given to 16 independent power producers including Razak Dawood and Nadeem Baber Baber.

The same report accuses two Chinese companies of inflating their costs to set up coal plants which is the same kind of corruption that Imran Khan promised to put a stop to when he took charge.

In 2018, when Imran Khan assumed office, he issued an order. Several CPEC projects were put on hold allegedly over the suspicion of corruption but since the inner circle of Imran Khan has been named in graft complaints progress on CPEC has stalled.

Violent attacks on Chinese investments and limits on borrowing have added to Islamabad's troubles almost a month ago, 14 security personnel were killed in Gwadar. The city where China is building the deepest seaport in the world.

The outbreak of the Wuhan virus has caused further delays. The pandemic is hurting Pakistan's plans to build special economic zones with China's help. Reports say Chinese companies are facing production delays.

Managing human and material resources is proving to be a struggle for the Pakistan government alongside inflated bills. The opposition faced with a barrage of corruption lawsuits is now breathing down Imran Khan's neck.

They accused the prime minister of not expediting key infrastructure projects with China. Imran Khan is struggling to get things back on track. It won't come as a surprise if Beijing decides to dial the Pakistani military for help.

China is failing in Pakistan. Most investors think twice before funding projects in Pakistan. Corruption, terrorism, violence and security concerns make Pakistan a deadly destination but China has kept pumping money to lay its debt trap.

China is failing in Pakistan. Most investors think twice before funding projects in Pakistan. Corruption, terrorism, violence and security concerns make Pakistan a deadly destination but China has kept pumping money to lay its debt trap. In January, the ground was broken for the first SEZ titled Allama Iqbal Industrial City in Faisalabad in Punjab province. However, the SEZ plan faces delays due in part to the fact that participating Chinese companies are expecting difficulties in managing human and material resources amid pandemic restrictions resulting in production delays and higher costs. Now, the strategy may be backfiring. China's projects in Pakistan have been stalled due to rampant corruption and violent attacks. PM Imran Khan is now facing heat from the opposition because his own officials are in the dock. PM Imran Khan wants to be known as a crusader against corruption whether it was the Sharifs or the Bhutto Zardaris, Khan has been relentless in his crackdown but the selected prime minister has been selective in his clampdown. Imran Khan hasn't gone after the corrupt officials in his own team with the same enthusiasm. It began with lieutenant general Asim Saleem Bajwa - the pizza general who still remains the chairman of CPEC. Fresh reports now indicate more dirty hands could be in the mix. Two advisers of Imran Khan are allegedly beneficiaries of government subsidies. The securities and exchange commission of Pakistan conducted an enquiry. It found irregularities worth over $1.8 billion in government subsidies. They were given to 16 independent power producers including Razak Dawood and Nadeem Baber Baber. The same report accuses two Chinese companies of inflating their costs to set up coal plants which is the same kind of corruption that Imran Khan promised to put a stop to when he took charge. In 2018, when Imran Khan assumed office, he issued an order. Several CPEC projects were put on hold allegedly over the suspicion of corruption but since the inner circle of Imran Khan has been named in graft complaints progress on CPEC has stalled. Violent attacks on Chinese investments and limits on borrowing have added to Islamabad's troubles almost a month ago, 14 security personnel were killed in Gwadar. The city where China is building the deepest seaport in the world. The outbreak of the Wuhan virus has caused further delays. The pandemic is hurting Pakistan's plans to build special economic zones with China's help. Reports say Chinese companies are facing production delays. Managing human and material resources is proving to be a struggle for the Pakistan government alongside inflated bills. The opposition faced with a barrage of corruption lawsuits is now breathing down Imran Khan's neck. They accused the prime minister of not expediting key infrastructure projects with China. Imran Khan is struggling to get things back on track. It won't come as a surprise if Beijing decides to dial the Pakistani military for help.

China-Pak CPEC project stalled due to rampant corruption, violent attacks

India's Information and Technology(IT) ministry on Thursday sent a notice to social media giant <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/twitter-under-fire-as-it-shows-jk-as-part-of-china-336260">Twitter </a>for showing Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir instead of Union Territory of Ladakh.&nbsp;

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/news-alert-indian-govt-warns-twitter-dont-disrespect-sovereignty-of-india-337083/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The secretary of ministry of electronics &amp; IT had written a letter to Twitter's CEO&nbsp;Jack Dorsey earlier raising objection for showing&nbsp;geo-location of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/twitter-under-fire-as-it-shows-jk-as-part-of-china-336260">Leh</a> in Jammu and Kashmir as a Chinese region.&nbsp;Twitter had later rectified the mistake.

However, it is yet to correct the map to show Leh as part of Union Territory of Ladakh.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/indian-govt-issues-stern-warning-to-twitter-over-settings-showing-leh-in-china-337088">Also Read:&nbsp;Indian govt issues stern warning to Twitter over settings showing Leh in China</a>

The IT ministry has sent the latest notice to Twitter's global vice-president, according to reports.

Reports say the Indian government has directed Twitter to explain within five days why legal action shouldn't be taken against it for disrespecting India's territorial integrity.

In the letter, the ministry said it was a deliberate attempt by Twitter to undermine the "will of sovereign Parliament of India which had declared Ladakh as a Union Territory of India with its headquarter in Leh."

The ministry had earlier sent a notice to Twitter on Monday over the issue.

(With inputs from Sidhant Sibal)

India's Information and Technology(IT) ministry on Thursday sent a notice to social media giant Twitter for showing Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir instead of Union Territory of Ladakh.

India's Information and Technology(IT) ministry on Thursday sent a notice to social media giant Twitter for showing Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir instead of Union Territory of Ladakh. Watch: The secretary of ministry of electronics & IT had written a letter to Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey earlier raising objection for showing geo-location of Leh in Jammu and Kashmir as a Chinese region. Twitter had later rectified the mistake. However, it is yet to correct the map to show Leh as part of Union Territory of Ladakh. Also Read: Indian govt issues stern warning to Twitter over settings showing Leh in China The IT ministry has sent the latest notice to Twitter's global vice-president, according to reports. Reports say the Indian government has directed Twitter to explain within five days why legal action shouldn't be taken against it for disrespecting India's territorial integrity. In the letter, the ministry said it was a deliberate attempt by Twitter to undermine the "will of sovereign Parliament of India which had declared Ladakh as a Union Territory of India with its headquarter in Leh." The ministry had earlier sent a notice to Twitter on Monday over the issue. (With inputs from Sidhant Sibal)

Leh row: Deliberate attempt to undermine will of Parliament, says India's IT ministry to Twitter

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday co-chaired the India-<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/with-indo-pacific-in-focus-india-asean-virtual-summit-to-take-place-on-thursday-342470">ASEAN</a>&nbsp;summit focussing on India's "Act East Policy".

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/asean-summit-india-decides-not-to-join-rcep-259919/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The leaders of ten ASEAN member states are participating in the summit which is being held online.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/vietnam-invites-india-for-asean-virtual-summit-in-november-336723">Also Read:&nbsp;Vietnam invites India for ASEAN virtual summit</a>

PM Modi along with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc will co-chair the 17th ASEAN-India Summit.

"There are many similarities between India's 'Indo Pacific Oceans Initiative' &amp; ASEAN's 'Outlook on Indo Pacific',"&nbsp;PM Modi said in his online message, adding, "strategic partnership of India &amp; ASEAN is based on our shared historical, geographical &amp; cultural heritage."

"ASEAN has always been the core of our Act East Policy," PM Modi asserted.

"It's of prime importance for us to improve physical, economic, societal, digital, financial and maritime connections between India &amp; ASEAN," PM Modi said at the virtual meeting.

"We have come closer in these sectors in the last couple of years and I believe this summit will go further to bridge gaps," the Indian prime minister said.

Earlier, Vietnam PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaking on the challenges said, "Peace and security have been facing greater threat as the result of compounding risk rising from the unpredictable conduct of states, major power rivalry and frictions that challenged the international multilateral system, increasingly non-traditional security issues and the rise of extremist tendency."

Vietnam's foreign ministry has not confirmed whether President Trump would attend the virtual meeting. The US president had attended the summit in 2017, however, the Trump administration has only sent representatives during the last two meetings.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday co-chaired the India-ASEAN summit focussing on India's "Act East Policy". Watch: The leaders of ten ASEAN member states are participating in the summit which is being held online.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday co-chaired the India-ASEAN summit focussing on India's "Act East Policy". Watch: The leaders of ten ASEAN member states are participating in the summit which is being held online. Also Read: Vietnam invites India for ASEAN virtual summit PM Modi along with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc will co-chair the 17th ASEAN-India Summit. "There are many similarities between India's 'Indo Pacific Oceans Initiative' & ASEAN's 'Outlook on Indo Pacific'," PM Modi said in his online message, adding, "strategic partnership of India & ASEAN is based on our shared historical, geographical & cultural heritage." "ASEAN has always been the core of our Act East Policy," PM Modi asserted. "It's of prime importance for us to improve physical, economic, societal, digital, financial and maritime connections between India & ASEAN," PM Modi said at the virtual meeting. "We have come closer in these sectors in the last couple of years and I believe this summit will go further to bridge gaps," the Indian prime minister said. Earlier, Vietnam PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaking on the challenges said, "Peace and security have been facing greater threat as the result of compounding risk rising from the unpredictable conduct of states, major power rivalry and frictions that challenged the international multilateral system, increasingly non-traditional security issues and the rise of extremist tendency." Vietnam's foreign ministry has not confirmed whether President Trump would attend the virtual meeting. The US president had attended the summit in 2017, however, the Trump administration has only sent representatives during the last two meetings.

ASEAN has always been the core of our Act East Policy, says PM Modi during virtual summit

As the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/armenia-must-negotiate-over-nagorno-karabakh-erdogan-tells-putin-341625">Armenia</a>-Azerbaijan peace deal came into force, the<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/nagorno-karabakh-azerbaijan-claims-capture-of-major-city-armenia-refutes-claim-341688"> Armenian</a> government today arrested at least 10 opposition leaders for their role in anti-government protests as public anger over the Nagorno-Karabakh&nbsp;agreement boiled&nbsp;over into the streets.

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/armenians-and-azerbaijanis-live-in-harmony-in-georgian-village-342606/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

PM Nikol Pashinyan had announced the Nagorno-Karabakh&nbsp;peace deal on Tuesday which indicated clear gains of Azerbaijan which was taken up by demonstrators at home. Under the deal, Armenia agreed to cede parts of the disputed region to Azerbaijan as it sparked public anger.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/armenia-and-azerbaijan-agree-on-a-deal-with-russia-to-end-conflict-342031">Also Read:&nbsp;Armenia and Azerbaijan agree on a deal with Russia to end conflict</a>

People came out on the streets to demand PM Pashinyan's resignation over the&nbsp;Nagorno-Karabakh agreement in Yerevan even as several opposition leaders were arrested by government forces.

Fighting between Azerbaijan and ver Nagorno-Karabakh had erupted on September 27 as the Minsk group comprising of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russian-militarys-mi-24-helicopter-shot-down-in-armenia-2-killed-342006">Russia</a>, United States and France intervened to stop the fighting.&nbsp;

Russia was able to broker a peace deal after Armenian and Azerbaijan ministers had met in Russia but both sides opened fire on the ground just hours after the ceasefire agreement.

Both sides engaged in sporadic shelling throughout the month as Russian President Putin&nbsp;seen as a close ally of Azerbaijan sought to broker peace between the two warring sides once again. Azerbaijan is a close ally of Turkey from whom it had bought drones during the conflict with Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that a Russian delegation will visit Turkey to discuss the creation of a joint centre for monitoring the peace deal.&nbsp;

Russian peacekeepers set out for the region on Wednesday as the country prepared to send military personnel and armoured personnel carriers as part of the peacekeeping mission.

As the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal came into force, the Armenian government today arrested at least 10 opposition leaders for their role in anti-government protests as public anger over the Nagorno-Karabakh agreement boiled over into the streets.

As the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal came into force, the Armenian government today arrested at least 10 opposition leaders for their role in anti-government protests as public anger over the Nagorno-Karabakh agreement boiled over into the streets. Watch: PM Nikol Pashinyan had announced the Nagorno-Karabakh peace deal on Tuesday which indicated clear gains of Azerbaijan which was taken up by demonstrators at home. Under the deal, Armenia agreed to cede parts of the disputed region to Azerbaijan as it sparked public anger. Also Read: Armenia and Azerbaijan agree on a deal with Russia to end conflict People came out on the streets to demand PM Pashinyan's resignation over the Nagorno-Karabakh agreement in Yerevan even as several opposition leaders were arrested by government forces. Fighting between Azerbaijan and ver Nagorno-Karabakh had erupted on September 27 as the Minsk group comprising of Russia, United States and France intervened to stop the fighting. Russia was able to broker a peace deal after Armenian and Azerbaijan ministers had met in Russia but both sides opened fire on the ground just hours after the ceasefire agreement. Both sides engaged in sporadic shelling throughout the month as Russian President Putin seen as a close ally of Azerbaijan sought to broker peace between the two warring sides once again. Azerbaijan is a close ally of Turkey from whom it had bought drones during the conflict with Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that a Russian delegation will visit Turkey to discuss the creation of a joint centre for monitoring the peace deal. Russian peacekeepers set out for the region on Wednesday as the country prepared to send military personnel and armoured personnel carriers as part of the peacekeeping mission.

Armenia arrests opposition leaders as protests erupt over Nagorno-Karabakh deal with Azerbaijan

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